Archive for July, 2012

So, you all know that I don’t like Country music. You’re probably looking at that title up there, thinking “isn’t that a Shania Twain song, and isn’t she country??” Both those statements are correct, but I’m a firm believer in making exceptions to every rule and keeping an open mind about things. So when I saw Shania’s You’re Still The One in my 98-99 Pop Hits book, I decided to go for it! Plus, I don’t know a single girl who grew up in the 90s who didn’t rock out to a little Shania at one point!

So, I just did a quick rendition of this in one take! Just me and my good old ukulele!

As you all should know by now, I love me some Madonna! I’ve covered several of her songs already, but I can never get enough of her, so here’s one more! This song is my second favorite off of her Ray of Light album (other than the title track), Frozen! I always loved this video! I thought it was really cool the way she danced, so I tried to dance like that and I really wanted henna tattoos!! haha

I found the chords/lyrics in that same 98-99 Pop Hits piano book that a few other covers have come from, but I just adapted them for ukulele! In this extremely stripped down version, I recorded 2 tracks. The first one is the uke chords and melody, and the second is the harmony and the little diddy on ukulele at the end!

This is the first recording I’ve done in the new place and it’s interesting how different the acoustics are here! More echoing I think. I was also standing in the corner with my computer and music propped up on the walls, so it probably echoed even more! If I could just get rid of the buzzing from my laptop, we’d be golden! Doing this really makes me want that album again! I might have to go to McKay tomorrow…

Anyone who knows me or has seen my kitchen knows that I am no cook. I think a lot of it boils down to lacking 5 things: patience, time, equipment, space, and money. If I had more of even just 2 of these things, I think I would cook more, but that is not the case at the moment. I do, however, on occasion get a great urge to make one particular thing, so this post consists of random things I’ve concocted over the past few weeks.

The first was inspired by the amazing broccoli bacon salad from Earth Fare. I love that stuff, but it’s a bit pricey, so I decided to make my own! I found this recipe online and here is the result (sans water chestnuts, because why would you put that in there?)!

It wasn’t quite as amazing as Earth Fare’s, but it’s not a bad, healthier substitute!

My next food feat came about when I had a few eggs that were about to go bad, as well as some bacon, so I made deviled eggs and topped them with bacon! Clearly, I like bacon… I did use low fat mayo…

I have to say, this has to be one of my best ideas ever! Deviled eggs + bacon = party on my taste buds!

And an instagram photo for good measure…

FYI I tried to be all fancy and make my own piping bag to fill the eggs, but I cut the tip to big and it was an utter failure resulting in me spooning it out. Oh well. Lesson learned.

This last Top Chef moment is one that you all have experienced before: my mom’s recipe for homemade salsa! This one has a bit more cilantro, but everyone at work destroyed it!

Unfortunately for me, my now gallbladder-less body has proved incompatible with raw onions… I thought I would be okay with just the small amount in a little salsa, especially since it’s been 7 months since surgery, but I was wrong. No more tasty salsa for me…

Hope you enjoyed my moments of culinary genius! Another post coming up either tonight or tomorrow!

So… I lied to you all. I promised more posts the same day as the last post, and failed to do so. And that was over 2 weeks ago!! All I can say is, I’ve been nuts trying to pack for this move, then I got sick, then I moved and didn’t have internet… until today, so here we are! So, I’ll do at least 2 posts tonight, and maybe be done with this project sometime before Christmas…

At any rate, this creative project is a cover of Drift Away by Dobie Gray, or for you youngins out there, by Uncle Kracker, who did a cover in 2003. One of these versions of this song comes on the radio at work just about every day (we listen to B97.5 most of the time… no repeats throughout the day, but you sure do play exactly the same songs every single day at the same exact time!) and my manager commented that he really loved the song and never realized that Uncle Kracker didn’t originally sing it. This is coming from someone who listens to mostly country, so I try and cut him a little slack… Just kidding, love you, Herbie! Anyways, after he said that, I happened to come across some uke chords for it, so I went with it! This was right at the beginning of my cold, so forgive my frog-like voice!

I was in Michael’s a few weeks ago and came across this kit to make soap that looks like cupcakes!

Sorry for the blurry pic… Anyways, I was with my friend, Whitney, at the time, and she loves cupcakes (her kitchen is cupcake themed!), so I had to get it! We were planning on making these together, but every time I came over, we didn’t have time, or we forgot about it, so I ended up making them myself! I made these a while ago, but kept forgetting to post them!

The soap is the consistency of play-doh, so you’re able to sculpt it! The first cupcake I made had a yellow base, white swirl icing and a strawberry with glitter on top!

The next cupcake was a brown base with pink icing and then a red swirl pattern. All this was topped with bath salts and glitter!

The last cupcake was a white base with purple icing and a pink and red flower with green leaves on top! Of course, a bit of glitter was added!

That was all the cupcakes the directions called for, but there was a ton of soap leftover, so I made this circle with flowers on it.

This was a simple, but fun craft to do with super cute results! But I definitely think that these are more for decoration than actual use. They never get hard, even after sitting out for over a week, so they wouldn’t hold their shape if you tried to actually wash your hands with them. But they look cute on my sink, so that’s alright! I ended up giving the one with the flower to Whitney

I’ve got 2 more posts I’m going to do today or tomorrow, but I don’t expect to posting much for the next couple of weeks. I’m moving to my new apartment and am crazy busy trying to pack!